Ouachita River School District

ORSD Community, Tomorrow, Wednesday February 23, 2022 all campuses of the Ouachita River School District will be closed due to inclement weather. Students will continue AMI learning and teachers will be available by email. Possible ice accumulation will start around 8:00 am and could continue throughout the day. Thursday's learning will be decided once we determine the severity of the weather system tomorrow. I will update you all as soon as I can. Respectfully, Jerrall A. Strasner Superintendent

On February 17th, the Acorn Tigers and Lady Tigers went to the Jack Stephens Center on the UA Little Rock campus to compete in the 2022 State Wrestling Tournament. Lady Tigers Bella Tedder and Shay Allen competed on Thursday, February 17th and Zack Cline competed on Friday, February 18th. The competition was tough as the girls faced competition in classes 1-6 A. Bella Tedder fought hard and competed well but went 0-2 for the tournament. She may not have won a match but they knew they had wrestled an Acorn Tiger! Shay Allen came into the tournament with an 11-0 record and she was the #4 seed. Shay won her first match by a fall in 9 seconds. The second match was the toughest match she has had up to this point in the season. Shay had not really been challenged as she wrestled this year. So as the Coach my biggest concern coming into this tournament was how Shay would respond to being challenged. Shay's second opponent challenged her well but Shay responded and rose to the challenge and came out on top winning by a fall in 2:43 seconds. The third match of the night which was the Semi-finals round had the number 4 seeded Shay Allen facing the number one seed, D'Mysha James from Sylvan Hills. This match went back and forth as you would expect but Shay Allen remained focused and on task and would not be defeated. After 2:34 seconds Shay Allen pinned her opponent and would move on to the State Championship match. The championship match had Shay Allen from Acorn versus Starr Smith from Cabot. This match was a battle for the ages with two pretty evenly matched wrestlers. It was a back and forth battle with both girls fighting hard for the championship. This was the longest match that Shay has had to endure all season and it came after wrestling three others. At a time of 5:48 fatigue and exhaustion got the best of Allen and Starr Smith pinned Shay Allen for the Championship. Shay Allen is a first year wrestler who accomplished a record of 14-1 and finished second in the State. This is way above and beyond the expectation of a first year wrestler. This is a great accomplishment and I could not be more proud of her as a coach. We are already looking forward to next year! On Friday, February 18th Zack Cline competed and he won his first match and then lost his next two to finish the tournament with a 1-2 record. This has been an amazing season and I appreciate all of your support! I know that this was a new program this year but our fans showed their support and encouraged the team and myself every step of the way. I could not ask for a better fan base. We look forward to continuing this journey next year! Coach Andy Arnold

February is CTE Month Sydney Jackson - Oden CTE Instructor CS Programming & JAG

Attention Acorn Tiger Gans: If you are planning on attending the Regional Basketball games in Eureka Springs, you must purchase tickets through the link below. Link to tickets. https://gofan.co/app/school/AR23817

Attention Acorn Tiger Fans: As many of you know our Sr. Tigers and Lady Tigers punched their tickets to travel to Eureka Springs this coming week to play in the 2A Regional tournament. If you would like to donate snacks, drinks, or anything else for the trip it would be greatly appreciated!!! (examples: Mac n cheese cups, Ramen cups, crackers, fruit, waters, granola bars, or anything else!!) Thanks to all of our Acorn Tiger supporters!!! Donations can be dropped off in the Acorn High School Office. GO TIGERS!!!!!

Ouachita River School District - Acorn and Oden campuses will be closed on Monday, February 21, 2022 in observance of President's Day.

February is CTE Month CTE Spotlight: Culinary Arts: Food Production Management and Food Services Acorn High School CTE Instructor Mindy Lyle Culinary Arts: Food Production Management and Food Services Courses Offered at Acorn High School: - Food, Safety & Nutrition - Food Production - Hospitality Administration - Arkansas Hospitality & Tourism Additional course offerings: Life Span Development, Family CSI Student organization students can join & compete in skills learned: FCCLA Certification students can obtain: ServSafe Food Handler, ServSafe Food Manager, CPR Students obtaining ServSafe Certifications: Olivia Maechler Cierra Burdess Paige Parnell Sophie Strasner Joshua Tilley Kora Carter Nicholi Carrillo Lavinia Polsinelli Audrey Holiday Kaylee Tedder Daisy Dollar Sarah Tedder Kenzie Daniels Raeghan McCourtney Gabe Lickly Colten Quebedeaux Ashlee Arce Amy May Emma Long Emily Blair Raylin Lane Students enrolled at Ouachita River School District gain valuable work-ready and life skills in CTE programs from highly trained and industry-knowledgeable instructors. ORSD CTE...preparing students for life! #orsdlifeprep

Attention Acorn Tiger fans!!!! We just received word from Coach Arnold that our very own Shay Allen is heading to the state finals wrestling match!!!!!! Way to represent Shay!!!!

February is CTE Month CTE Spotlight: Construction Technology Acorn High School CTE Instructor Ricky Dollar Construction Technology Courses Offered at Acorn High School: - Construction Fundamentals - Carpentry - Electrical - Plumbing Student organization students can join & compete in skills learned: Skills USA Certification students can obtain: OSHA 10 Certification AHS students completing OSHA 10 Certification: - Johnathan Bodkin - Jacob Cottman - Westin Johnson - Tyler Lyle - Caleb Reynolds - Isaac Tedder - Eric Mowdy - Carter Wolfenbarger - Michael Walker Students enrolled at Ouachita River School District gain valuable work-ready and life skills in CTE programs from highly trained and industry-knowledgeable instructors. ORSD CTE...preparing students for life! #orsdlifeprep

AHS Basketball Friday, 2/11/2022 AHS SENIOR NIGHT Acorn High School hosted Senior Night on Friday, February 11, 2022 at Acorn High School Gymnasium. This event is a special one in recognizing the senior athletes active in Acorn Tiger athletic programs. This year’s senior athletes included: Emily Blair Damian Bohlman Cierra Burdess Jacob Cottman Madi Ellis Cole Hair Mark Hannaman Faith Harvey Kiersten Larucci Jake Lyle Tyler Lyle Abby Nance Justice Neufeld Caleb Reynolds Kaylee Tedder Raeghan Weddle Riley Weddle Congratulations to AHS Senior Athletes! The link to the Acorn Tigers Senior Night photo album shared is credited to Samantha Maechler Photography. https://samanthamaechlerphotography.pixieset.com/acorntigersseniornight/ Following senior night event: Acorn vs Foreman Acorn Lady Tigers won vs Foreman Lady Gators with a score of 76-44. Daisy Dollar was leading scorer with 17 points followed by Emily Blair 15 points and Sophie Strasner with 13 points. Acorn Tigers won vs Foreman Gators with a score of 74-58. Damian Bohlman was leading scorer with 29 points.

Acorn Culinary Arts students are excited about their broccoli, jalapeños, and bell peppers. Their indoor grow tower somehow got spider mites and before they were able to eradicate them, the mites wiped out half the lettuce plants. Students were really afraid the mites would kill the whole tower. After much research, they were able to create a homemade bug spray that finally killed them. If you need a nontoxic spray for your plants, Dawn dish soap, vegetable oil, and water works!

Acorn FCCLA is partnering with Arkansas FCCLA in gathering new/gently used books and puzzles for Arkansas Children's Hospital as part of our state project. All donations will be taken to FCCLA State Conference on March 30th and the donations will be picked up that day by a representative from Arkansas Children’s Hospital. If you would like to help, you can drop off donations to Acorn High School through February 25th.

February is Career and Technical Education month in Arkansas. Today was CTE Day at the State Capitol. Kenzie Daniels was in attendance today to represent Arkansas FCCLA and ORSD. Students and teachers heard from Governor Asa Hutchinson, Secretary of Education Johnny Keys, and Director of Career & Technical Education, Ross White. The FCCLA State Officers finished their day by having lunch at the State Capitol and working on state conference plans in the Family & Consumer Science Department at the Department of Career and Technical Education.

ORSD: The free smart thermometers through Kinsa's FLUency school health program sponsored by Lysol have come in. They will be sent home this week with the students that ordered them. It is not too late to participate in the program and receive a free smart thermometer. Ordering yours is easy! Text JOIN to 24020 to get started. For Oden students and staff, please select Oden for your school. For ALL Acorn students and staff please select Acorn Elementary School for your school. If you have any questions please email Nurse Leigh at Lgarner@orsd.k12.ar.us

Students at Acorn Elementary celebrated their Star Test Growth on Friday. Students enjoyed our "Movie Theater" styled reward day by watching a movie and spending tickets they earned from growth at our "concession stand". We are super proud of our students!

Acorn Elementary would like to thank all of our families that helped make our Family Math Night a success. We enjoyed having you here and hope you all had fun in our Valentine's Themed Escape Room! We had three families tie for 1st place time with 18 minutes: Mowdy/Enyeart Family Higgins/Groce Family Sprague Family 2nd place time was 21 minutes: Daniels Family Slaten Family 3rd place time was 26 minutes: Southwick Family Myers Family

Important information and tips on internet use and social media safety for parents and students. Check out the video and flyer published by Arkansas Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for February! https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1310485166028344

Oden Sr. Girls and Sr. Boys play in their district tournament Monday at Kirby. Attached is the bracket for 1A-7. Sr. Girls play first at 4:00 with sr. Boys following. Go Wolves! 🏀🐺

Congratulations to the Acorn Elementary, Middle, and High School Archery teams - all three are State Bound! *Elementary 2nd in Region *Middle School 1st in Region *High School 2nd in Region

Attention Acorn Tiger Fans: Here are the brackets for the Sr. Boys and Sr. Girls district tournament this week at Mountainburg!!! If you can make it, please come put and support these amazing athletes!!!